What's Trending Now: Travel with a Purpose

Both travelers and travel companies are stepping up to the plate to help support sustainability projects around the world. Discover how you can change the world while exploring it.

TreadRight#MakeTravelMatter

TreadRight is a not-for-profit foundation established by The Travel Corporation. All travel brands under TTC group — some of which include: Insight Vacations, Uniworld Boutique River Cruises Collection, Contiki Holidays, and Red Carnation Hotels — give financial support to TreadRight, which in turn supports sustainable tourism projects around the world.

The projects are focused on three key pillars: people, wildlife, and the planet. Believing that travel is a gift that comes with responsibility, TreadRight supports 55 projects in 280 communities in 26 countries.

Partners include the Kari Foundation in Australia which encourages indigenous and non-indigenous communities to work together on initiatives that will provide indigenous advancement; the Centro de Textiles Tradicionales del Cusco which strives to keep Cusco’s weaving traditions alive, the Wildlife Conservation Fund’s Big Cat Fund which seeks to conserve all big cat species, and the worldwide Single-Use Plastics Elimination Initiative. To be part of the conversation, follow TreadRight at their hashtag #MakeTravelMatter.

A&K Bike Shop Program

Abercrombie & Kent has over fifty sustainability projects throughout the world. One of their most innovative is the Bike Shop Program which has been set up in eight countries in Africa and the Middle East. Donated bikes are collected and sent to the bike shops, each of which employs five women and makes it possible for them to support their families through their salaries. The bikes then empower their local communities by making it possible for health care workers to see more patients, students to get to distant schools, and workers to get to work in a climate friendly and affordable fashion.

Profile Céline Cousteau, TreadRight Ambassador

Céline Cousteau, granddaughter of renowned ocean explorer Jacques Cousteau, is a humanitarian, an environmentalist, and a documentary film maker. She has been the official ambassador for the TreadRight Foundation since 2015. Cousteu’s involvement with the foundation started with her role as sustainability partner with Contiki Holidays. In that capacity, she was lucky enough to experience and film several TreadRight projects including the Mesoamerican Reef Leadership program in Mexico, WildAid’s project Sharks Count in The Galapagos and most recently, the Sea Turtle Conservancy rescue and rehabilitation center in Costa Rica.

When asked which projects she is most passionate about, she answers thoughtfully. “My heartstrings leap at the possibilities of supporting wildlife conservation projects and I will always be present to help defend the species that need it. That being said, I have a real penchant towards helping empower people at the grassroots level, those who have the willpower to move forward but need support to make it happen. This can be done through skills training, education, and access to resources, but always in collaboration with the person in need.” Cousteau is a powerful and articulate advocate for TreadRight and its mission and considers herself the foundation’s public voice or storyteller. She believes that, “We all have a role to play in conserving our environment; after all, we want future generations to have the opportunity to experience the diverse and inspiring people, cultures, and places this world offers. Together with TreadRight, I am working to support the organizations looking to make this a reality. I know that together we can make a big difference.”

Cool Effect

By incorporating Cool Effect’s Travel Offset Tool into its platform, Ensemble Travel Group is the first consortium that enables its advisors to help clients offset their carbon footprint by donating to sustainability projects.

Cool Effect is a non-profit devoted to reducing carbon emissions and fighting climate change. To date, it has reduced over one million tons of carbon from the atmosphere. Using the flight length and passenger load, the Travel Offset Tool calculates the quantity of carbon emissions a person uses. On a 2,500-mile flight on a 280-passenger airplane, each passenger would use one ton of carbon emissions which can be offset by a donation of $7.80. Passengers can donate that amount to one of Cool Effect’s fifteen projects that are devoted to such causes as protecting the rainforest, saving endangered orangutans, helping indigenous communities, and conserving wildlife.

Green Globe Certified Hotels

Part of the Global Sustainable Tourism Council, Green Globe is supported by the United Nations Foundation. To get certified, hotels have made changes such as: Using solar rooftop heaters for all hot water needs; Getting water from desalinization plants; Using salt-based pool purification systems rather than chlorine; Composting waste and raising their own vegetables for restaurant use; and purchasing fresh fruit and vegetables grown locally and organically. The following Ensemble Preferred Hotels are Green Globe Certified: the Colony Club in Barbados; Casa de Campo in the Dominican Republic, and Half Moon Bay in Jamaica.

Banyan Tree Andaz Mayakoba

Rainforest Alliance

Zoetry Paraiso

Rainforest Alliance-certified hotels are required to minimize their environmental foot print and support workers, local cultures, and surrounding communities and ecosystems. These Preferred Hotels are certified: Banyan Tree Mayakoba, Hotel Andaz Mayakoba, and Zoetry Paraiso de la Bonita.

16 ENSEMBLE VACATIONS WINTER 2020 Eco-Friendly Suitcases Suitcase manufacturers are combatting climate change with these eco-friendly luggage lines.

All of the fabrics including the lining of Samsonite ECO-Nu are made from 100% post consumer recycled plastic bottles. By repurposing post consumer and post industrial plastic waste from their own production lines, Samsonite also decreases its surplus waste and repurposes it. On some models, even the carry handle, ID tag, and logo are made from wood waste.

InCase’s Ecoya® Collection is made using an innovative eco-dyeing process that reduces CO2 emissions and uses less water, less energy, and fewer chemicals. Thanks to the eco-dyeing process, the EO Roller’s fabric retains color longer and has minimal fading when the bag is washed or exposed to light.

Patagonia’s Black Hole® duffel bag collection is made from lightweight 100% recycled polyester fabric, polyester lining, and nylon webbing. It is also made at a factory that produces zero wastewater.